If you’re talking about general Clinton influence, I’d think that Bill Clinton would prefer a Bush under an eagle in the Republican column, since the Clintons and Bushes have been personally close (though of course not always on policy) ever since Bill gave G.H.W.Bush his bed on the long flight to inspect Tsunami damage.

I’m sure that he regards any relation with Donald Trump to be much more transactional, contingent and unreliable.

“And is Manila suggesting that we are (or perhaps should be) at war with Mexico?”

Pardon my General Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor, we should have kept the whole nine yards when we had the chance.

There might have been a little bit of a slavery problem but illegals: NO!

Also, the Mexicans might want to declare war themselves but only if they lose. After all, look what happened to Japan and Germany’s economy after they lost. Reminds me of the movie “The Moose that Roared!” (Or was it a book?)

Dan Quayle live in Arizona and his little son went to Congress until the teabaggers threw him out of office. Dan would make a good addition to this year’s Republican Clown Car. The fact that we are talking about what states would win if he ran against Hillary next year tells us all we have to know about today’s Republican Party.

A better question Zreebs, should we have just “kept” Iraq as our own and moved in after we liberated it from Saddam? We sort of did, until the American people wouldn’t stand for it any longer. But, most of those “Americans” who will be standing on the stage tonight sure think we should have stayed, and that we should be invading Iran tomorrow.

Think about it Manila, your party could nominate Donald Trump for President, and yes we were talking about how many states Hillary would win if he were to become the GOP nominee. Now do I think that will happen, no. But, it is more a reality than it was a month ago. Angry old prejudiced white men like you Manila run the Republican Party, and Trump is just saying what you get on here every day a write (although I must admit, you still don’t make sense half the time).

So, “we should have taken all the oil we could get” – that is what Dick Cheney promised us right? Remember? Or, were you too busy watching Rocky & Bullwinkle reruns? Yep, another broken promise by Dick Cheney.

Tonight ten old white men will stand on a stage in Cleveland and hearken back to a time when gas prices were 30% higher, Osama bin Laden was alive, the stock market was at 8,000, millions more people were unemployed and without health insurance, we were fighting two unwinnable wars, and gay folks were without the freedom to marriage. In other words, the Bush Administration.

I forgot about Dr. Ben, I saw him interviewed on PBS last night – it was like he was on downers. But, doesn’t matter when they were born, they are still old in how they think. And, of course, Hillary killed Vince, I have had people tell me that with a straight face. From Kenya to Vince Foster – sounds like the title of the book I should write about this dysfunction.

It’s really surpring how Scott Walker ,usually ranked asa first tier candidate ,is still a virtual unknown , even to many Republican voters.

You often read that he is the lowest “Unfavorables” among the GOP candidates,yet in many of these polls almost half the respondents say they don’t know enough about him to give an opinion.The same applies to lesser degree to Marco Rubio where around a third have no opinion of him.

Keith’s 1:21 is quite good, but it understates how bad the Bush administration was. For example, the unemployment rate was not only higher, but it was rising, and economists stated that we were on the verge of a great depression.

Oh, and North Korea announced that it had nuclear weapons. But I forget, was there a discussion on whether Bush marched the South Koreans to the ovens?

Or, how we should invade North Korea immediately? Or how naive Bush was in his negotiations? Or, did the Senate Democrats send a letter to North Korea saying they would void any agreement with them as soon as a Democrat was in the White House?

Ref. strategies for tonight – here’s from the opening of Trump’s book Art of the Deal from 1987:

“Most people are surprised by the way I work. I play it very loose. I don’t carry a briefcase. I try not to schedule too many meetings. I leave my door open. You can’t be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you’ve got too much structure. I prefer to come to work each day and just see what develops.”

That might be relevant for his mindset tonight as well.

And a bit more about his regular working habits – and phone calls:
“There is no typical week in my life. I wake up most mornings very early, around six, and spend the first hour or so of each day reading the morning newspa­pers. I usually arrive at my office by nine, and I get on the phone. There’s rarely a day with fewer than fifty calls, and often it runs to over a hundred. In between, I have at least a dozen meetings. The majority occur on the spur of the moment, and few of them last longer than fifteen minutes. I rarely stop for lunch. I leave my office by six-thirty, but I frequently make calls from home until midnight, and all weekend long.”

(Zreebs, the first portion was what we talked about to the other day, only then slightly rephrased through another source.)